A Brand New Life
by xLipstickMarks
Summary: From Spencer, Hanna, Aria, Emily AND Ali's point of view. See how different the girl's lives are.
1. Chapter 1

**What's Mine is Ours What's His is Not**

(This book takes place a couple years after book #8, putting the fact that there is a book #9 to the side. If you are reading this story and have already read book nine, pretend there's no such thing as Twisted :P)

Hanna.

The hot and humid July air crowded around my slender body as I opened the backdoor. The crystal blue colored pool glistened in the sun and I smiled. "C'mon, babies, it looks great!" I yelled to my two year old daughter and son. I held the backdoor open for the little kids to run out in their oversized inner tubes and elbow floaties. Mike followed them out and shut the door.

These were the moments I lived for – the moments that _reminded _why I'm living. I've had a crappy past, and I'd do anything to make sure nothing reminds me of it. As Mike closed the door, he immediately launched himself into the twenty feet pool. Droplets of water landed on my makeup-free face, also on the babies'. They shrieked. "Come here, Tara." Mike gave Tara a warm fatherly smile, and Tara jumped into his arms.

"Babe, you going to come in?" Mike looked up at me. I tossed my auburn hair over my shoulders and wrapped it into a high ponytail. I nodded and grinned, "Just waitin' for the babies to get in. Go on, Mikey." I urged my son, who was ready to jump off and fly.

That was all he needed. With full force, he leaped into my husband's arms screaming, "Gooooooo!" I grinned wider.

It was great that Mike wanted a relationship with my babies, even if they weren't his.

You see, it happened like this. A couple years after I graduated college, I didn't know that Lucas – my ex-boyfriend from high school – was still keeping tabs on me. Mike and I were broken up at the time, due to the fact that I was "insecure" because I thought he'd cheated on me at a Frat party. So, Lucas called me. I missed him. He missed me. A stupid screw-up led to Mike and Tara. Three months into my pregnancy, I broke up with Lucas, got back with Mike, and here we are, two years later, a happy family.

At least six months into my pregnancy, he proposed. I accepted and we got married five months later.

That was the kind of past I was talking about. I'm not going to let Lucas ruin my happy relationship with my family, putting to side the fact that he has custody of Tara and Michael.

"Babe?" Mike's concerned voice snapped me out of my thoughts. I looked up. He was holding Tara and Mike on both of his hips, dunking them under water.

"Yeah, I'll be in." I nodded, subliminally assuring him that I was ok. I removed the rainbow towel from my body and laid it on the stretched out beach chair next to the outdoor furniture set. The simple black bikini tugged my body in a way that was transparent to my curves, but not too much (considering that the babies were here). The piercing in my bellybutton glimmered in the sun as I jumped in the pool, letting my past go.

_If I try not to screw up, I'll be ok._

**(Reminder: the first four chapters will be just a catch-up on their lives. Btw, the scene is set six years later. They're all twenty-three!)**


	2. Chapter 2

**If Only Emily Saw the rest of the Pictures**

(This book takes place a couple years after book #8, putting the fact that there is a book #9 to the side. If you are reading this story and have already read book nine, pretend there's no such thing as Twisted :P)

Emily

My sister Carolyn nervously paced in the small living room. Her hand rested on her six month baby bump, she stared at the argyle carpet and sighed, "Where is he?" She whined as I looked up at her from the leather brown sofa. The apartment's interior wasn't the best, but it was the best thing my sister could afford.

Here it goes: After not being "good enough" for the college of my dreams since high school, I gave up and worked as a waitress at Hooters in Hollis. Swimming became a less important thing to me, as earning money for a place to stay because my parent's thought I was wasting my life became a bigger important thing to me. After endless nights at a restaurant where employees wore bras that were three sizes too small for them and customer men treated women like the trash they threw on the ground, I was smart enough to realize – this isn't the life I wanted, at least not in high school. So, I hopped on a train to Pennsylvania with all my belongings and moved in with Carolyn and her husband, Stephen. Newsflash: her husband was a total _loser_. He snuck out when she was asleep and I knew it. I sat back and watched him cheat while his pregnant – and insecure – wife sat alone, wondering where he had gone and why he had never came back. But the only thing kept me from tattling was…_him._

"I know you know." Stephen had said to me one night last month when Carolyn was sound asleep. He slammed the apartment door closed and looked me right in the eye, his breath reeking of secrets and Scotch. He didn't give me a chance to reply. I opened my mouth, but he instantaneously interrupted, "If you dare say a _word_ to her, she won't believe you."

"I'm her sister, Stephen." I replied, mentally praying to God that he didn't know how nervous I was in front of him. "I'm not going to let you sneak around her back when she's _with child_, more importantly, _your _child." Anger boiled inside my blood, and I wasn't afraid to let it out. I opened my mouth to begin ranting again but he cut me off.

An evil snicker ran across his tongue and I cringed. "Yeah, Emily, you're her sister but I'm her husband. She won't believe you because _I'm _her husband. Not you, Emily, you're her sister." He slowly spoke as if I couldn't comprehend his words – like I was a kindergartener. "She won't believe you. She won't believe you because she thinks I'm _perfect. _She'll throw your ass out for the blasphemy you'll say to her. You'll be on the streets, begging for money and working at that crumby restaurant again." He knelt down in front of my face. "Do you want to do that to yourself, Emily?" He said in a low voice that was almost a whisper.

After that, he had carelessly thrown his keys on the island counter and went to bed, not letting me answer that question.

That question abruptly stopped echoing in my mind when Carolyn had sighed again, "I'll be in my room." She said with her voice full of sadness and disappointment.

I bit my lip, brushing a strand of red hair behind my ear. There were moments like these where I could just jump into a six foot pool and all my predicaments would melt away and wash off as I dried my chlorine covered body. But that remedy was long gone.

I hadn't really had a real conversation with Stephen since that night where he had rudely ordered me to keep his secret. For me, the choice was: a) let my sister get hurt, and see Stephen hurt her. B) Live on the streets. So either way, Stephen was winning one way or the other.

Watching Carolyn drag her feet to the bedroom, I stood up and said, "Let me come with you. Maybe we can reminisce on some old photos?" I suggested. It lighted up her world just for a minute.

Carolyn's favorite thing to do when she was down was to remember her childhood or whatever the pictures reminded her of. She had had a total of three scrapbooks from our kid years to teen years to _her _life college.

"Okay," Carolyn led me to her black-and-white styled bedroom where a black bureau sat in the corner under the window. "It's in the last drawer. Can you get it? I can't kneel down." She smiled, nudging to her baby bump with her chin.

I did as she told and slid open the drawer by the knob. There was nothing in there but a Princeton College yearbook, a small pink notebook with Dora stickers and a large light green scrapbook with 'C A R O L Y N' stitched in on the top. I slid the green one out and laid it out on the bed. We both grinned.

She waddled next to me and climbed up to the king-sized bed and I sat next to her and hesitantly opened the scrapbook to a random page.

'E M I L Y'was written in blue and green markers on top of the paper spilled with old pictures from me when I was about sixteen.

"Aw," Carolyn cooed as she pointed to a picture that made my heart skip a beat.

I hadn't seen her in six years…Since high school. I bit my lip as I uncomfortably shifted on the bed.

"That's Spencer Hastings." I managed to croak. But before I could close the scrapbook and throw it out the window, Carolyn pointed to another picture that made my_ heart_ jump out the window.

"Maya," I whispered the name of my high school ex-girlfriend.

After that, I had immediately shut the scrapbook before my teenage years flashed before my eyes. I stood up, heaving the book back into the drawer and slamming it shut. "I never want to see that scrapbook again." I said lowly before quickly walking out.

**(Reminder: the first four chapters will be just a catch-up on their lives. Btw, the scene is set six years later. They're all twenty-three!)**


End file.
